Specifications Bantam Wingspan: 39" Wing area: 210 square inches Length: 24" Flying weight: 8.3 ounces (7 cell 150 mAh NiCad flight pack) Motor: GWS IPS DX-A Prop: GWS 9x4.7 Functions: Rudder, Elevator, Throttle Bantam Bipe Wingspan: 39" Wing area: 380 square inches Length: 24" Flying weight: 8.9 ounces (7-cell 150-mAh NiCad flight pack) Motor: GWS IPS DX-A Prop: GWS 9x4.7 Functions: Rudder, Elevator, Throttle Available From: SR Batteries

Introduction

I wonder what I would get if I sprinkled a little shrinking pixie dust on a set of SR Batteries Cutie plans, mixed in some nostalgia from the 50's and 60's, and said this should fly well in small outdoor spaces as well as indoors? Hmmm......

Well, that is probably not what happened as Larry Sribnick set out to design another total home run of a kit from SR. That is sure the vision that came to my mind, though, as I opened the boxes that arrived on my doorstep containing the Bantam and Bantam Bipe. The designs certainly look like a scaled down Cutie with a fuselage straight out of the "golden age" of Free Flight and early R/C models. I was instantly in love with these lovely GWS DX-A powered airplanes. Any model with these great looks and apparently having the aerodynamic configuration of the Cutie had to be a winner. Throw in a biplane configuration and how could you go wrong?

In a nutshell, SR Batteries has hit another home run with the Bantam series. Each model is full of Larry's now familiar design innovations. They both fly great whether your setting is outdoors or indoor. The option of having one wing or two just makes it that much nicer. If having a limited space flyer that just "looks right", is easy to build, uses an inexpensive readily available power system, and happens to fly great appeals to you, then read on.

Kit Contents

SR kits are sold via mail order. As a result, they are delivered in a nice triangular mailing box. Knowing that many of us will have a difficult time deciding if we want the Bantam as a monoplane or as a biplane, SR has a nice package deal for both models. I had the true pleasure of being able to review both models, so I received the dual kit package. This means that two triangular boxes nicely attached to each other and full of Bantam goodies showed up on my doorstep.

The dual kit option shares the plan and assembly manual. Both kits contain the usual SR quality balsa and hardware.	The Bantam kits include the trademark SR detailed pictorial assembly manual.

Opening the boxes reveals the normal stash of beautiful balsa wood full of laser cut parts, laser cut lite ply, quality hardware, vinyl decals, clear hinge tape, pushrod material, a computer drawn plan, and one heck of a complete 44 page pictorial assembly manual. In the case of the two-kit package, only one plan and assembly manual is included. Both the plan and manual are laid out to handle either configuration of the Bantam. One feature that I like about SR plans is that they easily fit my building board. Rather than the usual large rectangular sheet of paper, the SR plans are double side printed on a strip that lies down nicely on my 24" x 48" balsa Guillows building board. It is not a big deal, but still a nice feature.

I mentioned the very nice balsa in the Bantam kits. As we all know, building the smaller limited space type electric models means that they must be light. SR is noted for providing quality light balsa in their kits, and the Bantam series is no exception. For your reference, I weighed the wood in the kits that I built. The results are given in the following table.

• 3/32" balsa used for wing and fuselage parts: 5.7 lb/ft3
• 1/16" balsa used for wing ribs, tail surfaces, and fuselage sheeting: 7.3 lb/ft3

For those of us who like to scratch build our models, light wood or "contest grade" is considered to be balsa that is in the 4 to 6 pound per cubic foot category. You can see from the table that SR has included the "good stuff" in their kits. The slightly "heavier" 1/16" stock is used for wing ribs and the tail surfaces, among other things. The density of the wood is just about perfect for those applications.

Assembly

Wing

Following the sequence of the Bantam assembly manual, construction begins with the wing or wings in the case of the bipe. As has been my experience with other SR kits, the very first assembly steps begin to reveal nice design touches. In the case of the Bantam, you will see that the wing spars do not follow the traditional strip stock in a rib notch approach. The spars and turbulator strips are laser cut. This helps insure you get straight strip wood, but it also opens the door to a little design innovation. Notches have been cut into the spars and turbulator strips that establish perfect locators and alignment references for the ribs. You really get to appreciate this design feature when you follow the wing assembly process. All of the ribs are fitted to the spars and turbulator strips dry. You end up with almost a complete wing assembly in perfect alignment without applying one morsel of glue. Very neat.

All of the wing strip wood is laser cut. This helps keep the pieces straight, and allows for some notches that help align the structure.

The precision of the parts and their design allows much of the wing framework to be assembled dry before any adhesive is used.

Another area where Larry shows a little out of the box thinking relative to the wing structure is the leading edge. He has taken the long-standing traditional square strip stock rotated 45 degrees approach one-step further. Rather than provide the usual square strip stock, he provides two laser cut strips of 3/32" balsa. These in turn are stacked one next to the other and held flat against the trailing edge with pins. This makes sure the strips are straight in both directions. A few drops of CyA along the length of joint between the two strips and you end up with a perfectly straight leading edge. Very neat.

The wing's leading edge is made from two laser cut strips.	The trailing edge is used as a jig to glue the leading edge strips together, which gives a nice straight leading edge.

The leading edge is installed so the joint does not show. Having a straight leading edge really helps keep the lightweight wing nice and true.

Once you have the basic wing structure completed, it is time to add the sheet balsa tips. Here again, Larry has taken traditional design one-step further. This type of wing tip design is quite popular on smaller models. One draw back, though, has been sanding a proper angle in the spar and turbulator strips to allow the tip to mate accurately. The problem, at least for me, is making sure the angle is the same on both tips. So what did Larry do? Well he simply got rid of any cut or sanded angles by placing notches in the wing tip plate. This allows each tip to be properly aligned and then glued in place. The excess spar/turbulator strip material is easily cut away and the tip easily sanded smooth, which is very neat and makes it easy to get good results.

Cleaver use of notches in the wing tips makes accurate alignment with the spar and turbulator strips a breeze.

The wing assembly is completed by gluing each panel together. The angle of the root ribs is determined by the notched spars, so you find that the plywood dihedral brace fits into place just as it should. The resulting wing structure is light, straight, and plenty strong for the lightweight Bantam models.

The wing framework is quite light, but is also plenty strong. Everything goes together quite quickly.

Fuselage

Assembly of the Bantam fuselage is very straightforward. The steps for either the monoplane or bipe are almost identical. The process begins by joining two pieces that form each side, followed by the addition of balsa doublers. The only trick here is to be sure that as you glue on the doublers, you form a right and left hand side. The fuselage parts are labeled on the sheets relative to right and left, so it might be worth your while to apply an "R" and "L" pencil mark to the appropriate pieces.

Fuselage assembly goes quickly and begins by joining the pieces that form the sides, and then several light balsa doublers.

The fuselage sides are parallel from the wing trailing edge forward. This makes the addition of the formers very easy. The process called out in the assembly manual goes very quickly and results in a straight and square fuselage. All of the top and bottom planking has been laser cut to the proper shape. This really makes it easy to get the fuselage to have the proper final shape. In addition to the use of alignment tabs for the formers and pre-cut planking, the Bantam fuselage offers one more look at Larry Sribnick's attention to the details. Typical designs in the Bantam's size range use a piece of 1/16" balsa for the windshield area. This is certainly functional, but usually results in fairly sharp edges where you might want to simulate a windshield. Not a big deal, but Larry provides two nicely cut pieces of 3/32" balsa for the windshield plate. He even cuts a nice big lightening hole in the inside lamination. This thicker, yet light windshield plane can then be sanded to give a nice round edge, which is much more pleasing to the eye when the model is finished.

Alignment of the formers is a snap with the laser cut tabs and jig.	The sides are parallel from the wing trailing edge forward, which makes it easy to keep everything straight.

All the planking is laser cut to the correct size. This sure does aid the building process.	The windshield is made up from two balsa laminations. This allows the edges to be sanded round, thereby giving a very nice look to the model.

The fuselage framework is completed by sanding everything smooth and rounding appropriate edges.

Completing the framework

Once the wing and fuselage framework is finished, there is not much left to do before we cover the model. The remaining steps call for assembly of the tails surfaces and making up the landing gear. All that is necessary to complete the tail surfaces is to glue the tip pieces to the stabilizer, join the elevator halves with a dowel, sand a bevel in the hinge line, and then sand everything smooth.

The tail group is 1/16" balsa and requires very little work.	The landing gear is made by bending the .047" music wire legs to shape and then adding the wheels. The wheel collars are laser cut plywood held in place with a drop of CyA.

After the tail surfaces are covered, laser cut Lexan control horns are glued into laser cut slots. The joint is quite strong.

When the tail feathers are assembled and sanded, you get to make up the landing gear. About the only departure here from the typical SR kit is that you bend up the wire legs, rather than having them come already bent to shape. This is really no problem due to the simple bends needed and the relatively lightweight music wire used (.047"). A neat feature of the landing gear is the use of laser cut plywood wheel collars. These are cut to fit the music wire perfectly, and a single drop of CyA really holds them in place.

The completed framework for both versions of the Bantam is very light. Depending on your experience, expect to spend four hours or so assembling the framework of the Bantam and slightly more for the bipe (two quick building wings).

Covering

Certainly, it's no surprise to say that the ultimate success of models like the Bantam is very much a function of their flying weight. SR has provided a kit that produces a very nice lightweight framework. The rest of the job of keeping the model light is up to the builder. Of course, the building instructions do offer a recommendation for a covering material. That recommendation is Ultracote Lite. I happen to really like that material, so I had no problem following the recommendation. There are other nice lightweight covering materials now available to the builder of smaller R/C models, and they would work well for the Bantam series. It's really a matter of personal choice. The recommended covering material does come with the heat-activated adhesive already applied. That does speed up the covering process a bit over a material selection that requires application of an adhesive to the framework.

Both models were covered with the recommended Ultracote Lite. The covering process goes fairly quickly with this material.

Just to add a little color to the finished models, I chose to use red and yellow. A single roll of UltraCote Lite will easily cover either model. In fact, I was almost able to cover all of the red areas on both models with a single roll. Just watch how much excess you allow around a component being covered, and you will have some of the roll left for the remnant bin. I should note that a nice tip sheet is included with the kit regarding covering. If you happen to be a new builder, you will find the covering tip sheet to be a big help.

Equipment Installation

Many of you looking at the Bantam models will probably already have the needed equipment on hand. The Bantams use the same motor/gear drive as is used on the GWS Lite Stik and Tiger Moth. One item that does vary, though, is the prop. The Bantams use a 9x4.7 prop rather than the 10x4.7 prop that is usually supplied with models like the Lite Stik. This is an important difference to note when surveying your equipment on hand. The servos, speed control, and receiver you are using in those models will also work nicely in the Bantams.

Fortunately, SR offers complete equipment packages if you don't already happen to have appropriate motor and radio equipment on hand. So, let's take a look at their optional equipment packages and how nicely they fit in either Bantam model.

The optional power system package comes with a carbon brush DX-A motor, 9x4.7 prop, Jeti 05 speed control, and a 150-mAh, 7-cell NiCad battery pack. Everything also comes set up with JST connectors so you can plug and play.

The optional radio system package includes the Maxx Products MPI receiver and crystal of your choice along with two Maxx Products HP-50 servos.

One thing I like about the MPI receiver is its relatively short antenna. This sure reduces the amount of "tail" that the model must drag through the air. The servos fit perfectly into the laser cut servo mount. I found that Hitec HS-55 servos also were a perfect fit in the servo mount, so I'm sure the other micro servos on the market will also fit with little or no difficulty.

Installing the motor in the Bantam is another nice bit of design innovation on the part of Larry Sribnick. It allows the motor to be simply plugged into the model. This makes swapping between models real easy. It also makes replacing a broken motor mount a non-event. Actually, Larry has designed the mount to be sacrificial in the event of an "arrival". We all know that at some point with our models, we do have those occurrences where a model stops flying very suddenly. The motor mount has been designed to absorb a lot of the energy that is created when the model experiences one of those sudden stops. Knowing that this happens to all of us, the kit includes the parts for a spare mount. Very thoughtful.

Laser cut plywood pieces are laminated to form the motor mount.	The cleaver design allows the motor package to be quickly plugged in or removed.

The mount design will break away on a "hard landing", thereby helping to save the model from damage. A spare mount is included in the kit.

Installation of the radio gear is very straightforward. A nice servo/receiver mount is provided in the laser cut plywood parts. You simply mount the servos and receiver to the supplied mount to form a "brick". This radio gear "brick" is then positioned along the shelf that was installed in the fuselage during its assembly. Balancing the model is simply a matter of installing the motor, slipping the battery into position, taping the pushrods to the fuselage in their proper position, and then sliding the radio brick along the rails until everything balances at the designated balance point. Very slick.

The receiver and servos form a "brick" when installed on the supplied laser cut plywood mount.	The radio "brick" is positioned along the fuselage rails to balance the model.

I need to mention that setting up the pushrods also reflects the careful attention to detail of these kits. DuBro miniature keepers are supplied in the kit. This makes setting up the pushrod ends very easy. There are no "Z" bends to be made. You just make simple 90-degree bends in the push rod ends and apply the keepers. The pushrods use the aluminum tube over music wire approach that has become an SR signature feature. It also means that routing the pushrods is much simpler since you don't have to snake them through supports between the servos and control surfaces.

Flying

The Bantam and Bantam Bipe represent two very nice small field/indoor flyers. Their classic looks combined with relaxed flying qualities add up to a great package. Both models were flown on an SR 7-cell 150-mAh NiCad pack. Seven cells combined with the GWS DX-A motor system and a GWS 9x4.7 prop give the Bantams plenty of power. In fact, after a short period of full throttle after a hand launch, or ROG (rise off ground), you will find yourself pulling the power back to about half throttle or just above. Both models have gentle handling characteristics and can be turned very tightly. This latter quality makes them ideal for flying in tight quarters.

Hand launches are simply a matter of throttling up and opening your hand.	The classic lines of the biplane really show as it passes overhead.

The biplane is just a bit slower then the monoplane. It turns on a dime and is a wonderful relaxed tight space flyer. All in-flight photos by Ralph Bradley

Even though both models make great relaxing flyers, especially if you have a comfortable open space, they will also show some spirited flight if desired. Loops can be completed from level flight, and with a little speed build up dive, you can crank in some rudder to make things interesting. They are not intended to be strong on aerobatics, but a little fooling around can add some real enjoyment to your flying session.

Like the biplane, the monoplane hand launches with no effort at all.	Both models handle modest breezes very well.

While designed for relaxed cruising around, both models will loop and do modest aerobatics. They also thermal very well when flown outdoors.

Flight duration on the 150-mAh NiCad pack is an easy seven minutes. Depending on your flying conditions, flight time can be significantly extended with the help of a passing thermal or two. These little birds seem to be really attracted to buoyant air. What fun it is to watch them gain altitude with the throttle nearly closed as you work a little lift. Their tight turning ability makes it real easy to stay with even the smallest of bubbles of rising air. When you feel they are getting just a bit too small as they reach higher and higher, just pull the throttle all the way back and down they come in a nice positive and comfortable decent. While flying in circles and simple aerobatics is not everyone's cup of tea, I find flying the Bantams to be a very nice way to relax, especially on those rare calm evenings where all you want to do is enjoy a little no hassle quiet flying.

The Bantams open the door for lots of small field flying fun, so how about a little back porch flying?

Before I leave you with the idea that all these models are good for is simple relaxed flying, I need to tell you they can be the source of great fun flying. Their size and maneuverability opens the door to all kinds of creativity. As an example, I wanted play a bit with the short take off run ability of the models. Taking off from the ground with these models is so easy that you want to do it again and again. My back porch became a carrier deck and some fun began. Put the model on the nice porch concrete surface, hit the throttle, and away she went. The trick was to take off, fly out a short distance, and then make a return back to the carrier. While I did chicken out of actually landing back on the porch (not enough time with the model), I did manage consistent landings in the grass, I mean water, right next the porch/carrier deck with no difficulty. After several of these circuits, I heard a call from a neighbor "hey that's pretty neat". I'm sure plenty of Bantam games can be dreamed up by the creative minds of electric powered R/C modelers.

So far, I have only commented on outdoor flying. I did have the opportunity to give both models a try in an indoor facility. The place we fly is the size of a full basketball court with a little space around the outside of the court boundaries. It's not big, but also not an overly small facility. The bipe is a bit slower and handled the indoor space pretty well until I started talking while flying and promptly hit a wall. Of course, my objective was to test the break away motor mount's ability to protect the model from serious damage. Yea, that's it. For those of you reading this who happened to be present watching my demonstration, that was intentional (he says with a very big grin). All kidding aside, the only damage to the model was the broken motor mount. Unfortunately, I failed to bring the spare, so the bipe was grounded. The monoplane also handled the indoor space quite well. Due to its faster speed, I did find myself almost continuously yanking and banking during the flight. After a few circuits, it became more comfortable and I proceeded to complete a number of laps. If you were fortunate enough to have access to something a bit larger than a single basketball court sized indoor venue, then the Bantams would really be at home indoors.

Recommendation

Recommending an SR kit is a no brainer. You get great wood, quality hardware, and a very comprehensive pictorial assembly manual. This is certainly true for the Bantams. The finished models fly great and offer the builder the option of flying outdoors or indoors. Throw in a classic look and you have a wonderful limited space electric powered model aircraft. I know that for many the time required to build something like the Bantams is an issue. If you can come up with six to eight hours of building time, you can have one of these models ready for some truly fun flying. If you are having trouble deciding which model to build, SR offers both in a reduced price package deal. Why torture yourself with such a decision, get 'em both.